It is usual for campaigns to drop out of a political race. You here it often on TV and in the news but it is completely different to actually live it. Working on a campaign is nerve wracking, employees must be able to pack up and leave in a moments notice while still committing all their time and energy to the campaign.
Note: When working campaigns you do not get the weekend off.
Martin O'Malley was expected not to succeed in this presidential primary but that did not stop his campaign from working as hard as they could to change the polls. The night of the caucuses we had high expectations. Ideally, just like everyone else, we wanted high poll numbers but unfortunately that was not how it turned out. Martin O'Malley ended the night with 0.6% of the vote, even with it I expected him to continue on to New Hampshire. For the past three weeks the O'Malley campaign has been working tirelessly to booking shifts, canvassing and making phone calls to get the good word of the Governor to reach far and wide. I worked harder than I ever had in my life.
I learnt a lot of things in this month, the one that resonate the most is that politics is not just press releases and fancy dinners but it rests on individuals completely dedicated to their candidates working day and night to convince each possible undecided voter. Unfortunately, this more often than not does not result in a recipe for success. But the people I met this month worked on not a lot of money, spent a lot of time on the O'Malley campaign and were amazing role models. They showed me how to work towards something you believe in no matter the odds.
-- Rhea Rajan is a Sophomore at St. Olaf College from Mumbai, India. She is a Psychology major with a concentration in Neuroscience. She is in New Hampshire as part of a St. Olaf political science class studying the presidential election.
